8 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2016
Local
Arts master plan progresses
County
Commissioners
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
Gina K. Swartz / The Baker County Press
L-R Brian Vegter, Rosemary Abell, Corrine Vegter, Mary Miller, Ann Mehaffy, Derek Hosler.
• PUBLIC ARTS
COMMISSION
MEETS
BY GINA K. SWARTZ
Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com
Tuesday evening the
Public Arts Commission
met with the main goal of
working on completing
their master plan.
It’s close, but there is
still work to be done.
As the meeting began
Brian Vegter said, “I think
we should welcome Rose-
mary. She is joining us as
the City Council liaison.”
Councilwoman Rose-
mary Abell was attending
her first meeting.
Chairwoman Ann Me-
haffy added, “And wel-
come Mike Myers.”
Myers is a local citizen
who attended the meeting
to become informed as to
what was going on.
Abell asked “So, where
are you in editing this?”
referring to the draft copy
of the master plan in front
of her.
Each member answered
stating what they had done
but made it clear that there
was still plenty to do.
At the February meeting,
the group agreed that once
completed they would need
to present the final product
to the City Council.
Tuesday evening, still
having not completed the
plan, the group agreed
that a presentation to City
Council was not something
they were quite ready to
do, although they’re very
close.
Current City Manager
Mike Kee, who was not
present at this meeting, has
been a crucial part of this
commission.
Mehaffy noted, “We
really need to make sure
we present this to Council
before Mike Kee is gone,
he really has been key to
our success.”
She laughed at her pun,
“Kee is key.”
Kee, who officially re-
tired in November 2015 is
on a six-month contract to
continue his services with
the City as they go through
the process of hiring a
replacement City Manager.
He represents City staff
on the Commission.
At the February meeting
the commission looked
over a rough draft plan that
had been put together by
Julie Smith, Management
Assistant for the city and
while they all paid compli-
ment to her hard work on
the project there of course
were revisions and addi-
tions they wished to see.
All agreed to take the
plan home and edit it to
their liking and bring it
back to the table at to-
night’s meeting.
Mary Miller said she had
delivered her hard copy
to Smith with corrections
that were grammatical in
nature, having to do with
sentence structure past or
present tense, spacing that
sort of thing.
She said unfortunately
she currently did not have
a computer that is why she
delivered her corrections to
Smith in person.
Smith had not yet made
those changes and resent
an updated copy to com-
mittee members.
The majority of the
meeting encompassed the
committee going through
the document section by
section adding, removing
and relocating wording to
make it flow better.
The Committee agreed
that someone still needed
to go through the entire
document and make sure
that everything was written
in the same tense.
“I can do that,” offered
Abell.
They discussed whether
or not the use of numbers
in a subsection was a good
idea or not concerned
that assigning numbers
may imply that certain
items had higher value
than others, which was
not necessarily the case.
Miller noted that in several
instances sections referred
to the same things more
than once, such as funding,
and then later in the docu-
ment funding had its own
section.
Brian Vegter said that
he thought that should be
cleaned up and addressed
however, in some instances
it was good to put small
dashes of a certain thing in
other areas of a document
that help tie into a larger
picture later on.
Mehaffy advised the
committee she had written
an entire page outlining
the Principles of Public Art
that she had forwarded to
Smith and not brought with
her to the meeting, there-
fore the committee was not
able to assess that section
for editing.
Corrine Vegter has been
working diligently on an
Art on Loan program that
she wanted to make sure
was included in the plan.
The group discussed where
in the plan that program
should be mentioned.
Corrine also had re-
searched and drafted a con-
tract that could be signed
with artist, however the
committee decided that did
not need to be part of the
plan and it would be in the
best interest of everyone
to have the City’s Attorney
review and approve the
contract before it was used.
The Committee agreed
that in the Master Plan, the
locations of all of Baker
City Public Art should be
an appendix to the docu-
ment rather than its own
section because the group
foresees the inventory
changing, especially with
the Art on Loan program,
and it needing to be up-
dated frequently. It makes
more sense to do it as an
appendix since that will be
the case.
They also thought maybe
it should just be a list with
the location for reference
and a photograph.
Mehaffy also said that
in the plan, “We need to
include Ordinance 3332
which is the creation of the
Public Arts Commission.”
Miller said she had
noted the ordinance in a
section she had originally
worked on but as Mehaffy
said, “The whole ordi-
nance should be there,”
The group discussed the
options and decided to add
a note where the ordi-
nance was mentioned that
referred to the appendix
where the entire ordinance
could be found.
“That ordinance is a glo-
rious ordinance; it is really
beautifully written. It took
a long time to craft.”
Before the meeting
adjourned Vegter noted
that his term and fellow
committee member Derek
Hosler’s terms serving on
the committee expired in
April.
Vegter asked what he
need to do and was advised
to contact Luke Yeaton in
Human Resources for a
new application to fill out
and submit while Hosler
humbly said, “No. I think
it’s time for some new
blood.”
Vegter also told the com-
mittee, “So, the movie rat
case was heard.”
He gave a long dramatic
pause, while the committee
intently waited for him to
continue. “It was thrown
out,” he said.
Vegter was referring to a
$250 graffiti citation given
to the Eltrym Theater last
year, which that business’s
owners appealed before a
judge.
The committee chat-
ted several minutes about
that with Mehaffy saying,
“Good. We won’t have to
hear any more about that.”
The committee once
again agreed to work on
their own revisions of the
plan to bring back to the
table in April with the
hopes it will be completed
at that meeting and pre-
sented to City Council later
that month.
OTEC committees announce 2016
nominations for Board of Directors
The nominating com-
mittee for Union County
(Donna Beverage, Dale
DeLong, and Mike
McLean) met and nominat-
ed Greg Howard for OTEC
Board of Director position
no. 7 (Union County) and
David Baum for OTEC
Board of Director position
no. 8 (Union County).
The nominating committee
for Baker County (Martin
Arritola, Diane Brown,
and DeeDee Clarke) met
and nominated Charlene
Chase for OTEC Board
of Director position no. 9
(Baker County).
All candidates are run-
ning to serve a three-year
term.
Additional candidates’
names may be placed
on the ballot by petition.
Nominations by petition
must be filed no later than
March 1, 2016, must be
signed by the candidate
and by at least 50 OTEC
members qualified to vote.
In addition, there must be a
request that the candidate’s
name be placed on the bal-
lot. For more information,
please contact Joan Macy
(541-524-2831) or Lara
Petitclerc-Stokes (541-
524-2858).
Winners will be an-
nounced at the annual
meeting scheduled for
Saturday, April 30, 2016 at
the Baker County Events
Center in Baker City, OR.
All OTEC cooperative
members and their families
are invited to attend.
OTEC voting members
will be able to cast their
ballots by mail in April or
at the annual meeting.
Bennett said, “I will follow whatever the law is... I’m
not going to sit here, and discuss my faith ...You under-
stand where I’m coming from. You may not agree, but,
you certainly understand ... I have no reason to change it,
as long as we’re in compliance with the law ...”
Kerns said, “When I came on this Commission, for
the first year and a half, we didn’t do the Pledge of Al-
legiance. I suggested we do the Pledge of Allegiance. I
particularly like the ‘One nation, under God’ statement.
That’s good enough for me, and I was happy with that.
The rest of it is I’m not going to make a big issue of it,
because I don’t wear my religion on my sleeve ...”
An emotional Ramona stood and said, “I am Jewish. A
lot of people don’t know that ... And actually, we don’t
like to be called ‘Jews,’ because that was what Hitler
called us ...” She spoke briefly about her beliefs, and she
regularly attends Commission sessions, standing during
both the Invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance.
Order No. 2016-117, Re-Appointing Members To The
Baker County Natural Resource Advisory Committee
(BCNRAC), was approved with a motion from Bennett,
and a second from Kerns. Ken Anderson, Jake Bingham,
Cynthia Long, Alice Knapp, Jan Alexander, and Arvid
Andersen were appointed, their terms set to expire on
March 1, 2019.
Order No. 2016-118, Re-Appointing Members To The
Baker County Travel Management Committee, was ap-
proved with a motion from Bennett and a second from
Kerns. Marty Stroy, Robert C. Harris, and Denise Kinzer
were appointed, their terms set to expire on February 1,
2019.
Order No. 2016-119, Re-Appointing A Member To The
Economic Development Council (EDC), was approved,
with a motion from Bennett, and a second from Kerns.
Craig Ward was appointed, his term set to expire on
March 1, 2019.
Order No. 2016-120, Appointing A Member To The
Baker County Planning Commission, was approved,
with a motion from Bennett, and a second from Kerns.
Kasey Wright was appointed with a term set to expire on
September 1, 2018.
Order No. 2016-121, Board Of Property Tax Appeals
Summary Of Actions was approved, with a motion from
Kerns, and a second from Bennett. According to the
document, the Board was formed to hear petitions for the
reduction of value, and waiver of penalties.
Order No. 2016-122, Appointing A Justice Of The
Peace Pro-Tem For The Baker District, was approved,
with a motion from Kerns, and a second from Bennett.
Harvey read a letter, dated March 2, 2016, and ad-
dressed to Tom Tidwell, Jim Pena, Tom Montoya, Bill
Gamble, and Jeff Tomac, of the United States Forest
Service (USFS), and Bruce Stillitoe, and Don Gonzalez,
of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), reaffirm-
ing Resolution No. 94-1003, Retaining Certain Travel
Corridors Across Public Lands Withing Baker County As
Baker County Public Roads, And Asserting The Authority
Of The County Of Baker To Administer Right-Of-Way
Across Federal Public Lands In Baker County, approved
by the Board in 1994 (Steve Bogart, Gerald Conrad, and
Truscott Irby). Noting some needed language changes,
the letter was approved to be signed out of session with a
motion from Bennett and a second from Kerns.
Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) No. 148056, For
The Financing Of Community Developmental Disability
Services, between the Oregon Department of Human
Services (DHS), and Baker County, was approved, with a
motion from Bennett, and a second from Kerns.
Amendment No. 4, to IGA No. 147781, For The Fi-
nancing Of Community Addictions And Mental Health
Services, between the Oregon Health Authority (OHA),
and Baker County, was approved, with a motion from
Kerns, and a second from Bennett.
Amendment No. 2, to an Oregon Military Department
(OMD) exchange agreement, between the OMD, and
Baker County, was approved, with a motion from Kerns,
and a second from Bennett.
The next, regular Commission session is scheduled for
Wednesday, March 16, 2016, at 9 a.m.
Forest proposals
requested
In response to the two-year reauthorization by Con-
gress of the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-
Determination Act in April 2015, the Umatilla, Wallowa-
Whitman, and Malheur National Forests are soliciting
year two project proposals to be funded under Title II of
the Secure Rural Schools Act through April 1, 2016.
Nonprofit organizations, local governments, and others
are encouraged to propose projects that restore water-
sheds, decommission or maintain roads, control noxious
weeds, or otherwise improve the condition of the For-
est. Proposed projects do not need to be implemented on
Forest Service lands, but must show a benefit to national
forest resources.
Project proposals for Year Two funding are due elec-
tronically by April 1, 2016. Application forms, instruc-
tions, and submission guidelines can be found online at
www.fs.usda.gov/main/wallowa-whitman/workingtogeth-
er/advisorycommittees.
New Title II projects must be initiated by September
30, 2017 and all Title II funds must be obligated by Sep-
tember 30, 2018.